{"id":2675,"date":"2022-02-03T05:40:30","date_gmt":"2022-02-03T05:40:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.acrodocz.com\/?p=2675"},"modified":"2022-02-03T05:40:30","modified_gmt":"2022-02-03T05:40:30","slug":"is-it-time-to-remove-the-word-independent-from-ime","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.acrodocz.com\/is-it-time-to-remove-the-word-independent-from-ime\/","title":{"rendered":"Is it time to remove the word \u201cindependent\u201d from \u201cIME\u201d?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Plaintiff\u2019s bar has generally recognized that IMEs may be many things, but \u201cindependent\u201d was clearly not one of them.\u00a0 Recently, an appellate court has reached the same conclusion, and it may be a useful citation to attorneys who seek to argue the obvious.<\/p>\n<p>While a few weeks ago <a href=\"https:\/\/www.acrodocz.com\/blog\/do-pi-plaintiffs-have-to-preserve-their-bodies-for-an-ime\/\">we told you<\/a> about this decision in which a New York appellate court found that spoliation of evidence applies only to a party\u2019s destruction of inanimate objects, not one\u2019s body, the court\u2019s discussion about IMEs is equally important and interesting.\u00a0 The decision is available <a href=\"https:\/\/www.leagle.com\/decision\/innyco20211207281\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The language used by the appellate panel in the decision suggests that the court is bothered or fed-up by the label \u201cindependent medical examination\u201d.\u00a0 The court\u2019s first reference in the decision to an independent medical examination includes quotation marks around the word \u201cindependent\u201d. Thereafter, throughout the decision, the court simply refers to the examination as an \u201cME\u201d instead of an \u201cIME\u201d. Towards the end of the decision, the court notes that there is nothing \u201cindependent\u201d about an ME, as it is not an occasion for treatment, and is conducted and controlled by a legal adversary.<\/p>\n<p>Is it time to retire the term \u201cIME\u201d and instead use \u201cME\u201d? Perhaps the term should be changed to Defense Medical Exam or Insurance Medical Exam, which more accurately describe the circumstances under which a PI plaintiff is evaluated at the request of the insurance carrier or defense counsel.<\/p>\n<p>AcroDocz provides services to personal injury and Mass Tort law firms. If you have any questions about AcroDocz\u2019s services, including the retrieval of medical records and bills, the review and summary of medical records and bills, and draft demand letter preparation, please reach out to AcroDocz at (786) 633-3100 or <a href=\"mailto:skarpel@acrodocz.com\">skarpel@acrodocz.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Plaintiff\u2019s bar has generally recognized that IMEs may be many things, but \u201cindependent\u201d was clearly not one of them.\u00a0 Recently, an appellate court has reached the same conclusion, and it may be a useful citation to attorneys who seek to argue the obvious.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":2676,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","content-type":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Is it time to remove the word \u201cindependent\u201d from \u201cIME\u201d?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Plaintiff\u2019s bar has generally recognized that IMEs may be many things, but \u201cindependent\u201d was clearly not one of them.\u00a0 Read more.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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